Busted

Okay, I'll get some party details and photos on later today, but first a little story and the pre-party events.

I drove into work yesterday so I could get home in time to get ready and make the party by 7 pm. Because of the odd street arrangements where I live, I cannot turn into my street from the main road during rush hour. It's a left turn against traffic.

But to get to my place then, you have to drive up four more blocks and wait at a stop light with no left-turn signal. So I usually end up waiting for four or five 'cycles' which is just a pain in the ass.

However, just before the turn-in to my street, there's a pedestrian signal with a full red light. If someone is crossing, I usually take the opportunity to turn left.

Yesterday, the cops were waiting. $115 ticket. There were only two of them, they busted the next guy, and while I was waiting to be written up four more cars made the same illegal turn.

So, I get home, swear a bit, get ready for the party and leave. On the way to the party I noticed there were cherries flashing nearly every second block with people pulled over.

Half way there I see them in my rear view mirror. I got pulled over for tossing a cigarette butt out the window. Fine for littering: $115.

But town hall assures that the Calgary Police do not have a ticket quota.

Right.

So add to that the hotel room ($167), the drinks for the evening ($60), the stuff I had to get for the costume ($150, but it's all reusable for biking, roller blading etc).

Grand Total: $547. For one night.

If I had cashed in the change in the jars I keep on my dresser, that would have been a decent week in Mexico.

But at least I had fun last night. Now I can't afford fun until May.

Pictures coming forthwith.

This Station is Now The Ulti..hack..kah...kah....blech

Ohhh crap this cold/flu hit me like a ton of bricks last night. Lost my voice, my head feels like a balloon on a stick. I sound like Darth Vader. The phlegm kind of spoils it though.

Called in sick this morning. Then I crashed until noon. I'm going to have to actually go outside to get some good drugs....

Gym was okay last night, just another day. Looks like the day before was an just a blip.

Okay, put on clothes, start car, drive to drug store.

Oh Doh (sniff)....

Argh. Looks like I've caught the bug that has flattened many a co-worker today (including the Lemming).

I do not want this to spoil the party for Friday, even if it means I have to take two days off of work.

Women. In. Tight. Outfits. Drinking.

Hehehcough.....cough, cough, cough.....hack! Bleh.....

On a slightly more jovial note, I picked up Galactic Civilizations: Dread Lords last night. From what I got to play (after downloading the the much dreaded Stardock DRM software) it's a very cool game, what Masters of Orion 3 should have been.

So, in spite of being ill, getting a new game and the fact we have a tonne of snow here, which brings out the loonies, I'm still going to the gym.

Can't disappoint the ladies now can I?

More Gym Experiences

Huh.

Did I hit an 'easy on the eyes' threshold or something in the past couple of days?

Get this. Went to the gym today after work (okay after dinner). And, good lord in heaven, it was hottie central. I think they've been recruiting.

Again, I'm on the bike reading my book. A very cute, very tall girl asks me if she has to sign up to use a bike. I tell her no, it's a free for all and she then says 'Great!', sits on the bike beside me and starts asking me about how long I've been there, how busy it gets etc. We then continue to say 'Hi' to each other as we cross paths during the non-cardio workout stuff.

Then while taking a break between sets on the bench, a girl looks straight at me and tells me she loves my T-shirt (the one that says Every time you download music off the Internet, God kills a kitten) and asks what I think of hers.

It said something, can't quite recall what, I got distracted. Again, smile and 'Hi' the rest of the night.

I'm not reading anything into this except that they were being friendly. Just understand this never, ever, ever happens to me!

I am really looking forward to the party on Friday. And going to the gym every waking hour of every day for the rest of my life.

Bored....

Bored, bored, bored, bored.

No games to play, if I look at another programming manual today my brain will leak out of my ears (and it leaves stains on my shirt).

TV sucks. Too late to watch another Kurasawa movie.

I could have a drink.....

Nah, school night.

Bored.

Okay someone ask me a question. Anything. Any and all questions will receive a thorough, honest and complete answer.

Ho-hum.

Oh, going to a costume party this weekend. Put together a snazzy outfit. The theme is '2nd Rate Superheroes'. Made up a character called 'Red Light'.

Tights are involved. I will post pictures. You have been warned.

Booooooooored......

When the hell did Saturday Suck?

Yikes. Okay here's the sitch.

Went to gym today, as I usually do on a Saturday afternoon before I get groceries (yes I am a man of routine). While on the bike, I was, as I always do, reading a book. In this case, I was finishing up A Long Way Down by by Nick Hornby.

Much to my great surprise, the girl beside me asked about the book. I told her it was okay, but I though Hornby's last few books haven't been his best. She told me she agreed, then we started chatting about other authors (Irving Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk etc).

Then she asked me out for coffee.

Stunned!

So anyway, we arrange to meet at a place we both knew at 7 tonight!

Man I hate being stood up... Even cancelled poker for that. Didn't get a phone number (and didn't give her mine).

Java For Gaming? Maybe in 1990

So I've been perusing Killer Game Programming In Java. It looks like a great course for learning game programming (they cover alot of stuff and how you actually design and code it) but when I look at screen shots for 3D rendering... well it seems a tad archaic.

So looking at some "3D" games on the web written in Java, I have to conclude that game programming won't get further than mobile phones unless they do some serious stuff with 3D. So I'm not sure how to proceed with Rocket Surgeon. Maybe I'll work up the model first and see which way to adapt (Java or C#). Have to learn both anyways.

Post 50!

No I'm not 50 years old.

The funniest thing I have seen. Ever

15 Minutes of Slightly Less Obscurity

Ooo! Oooo! OOOOOO!

No not that.

Regina is reading my poem on her podcast tomorrow!
Regina Lynn

Not Gina Lynn, which is another entity entirely. Don't ask how I know.

Man it's cold outside! No gym for me. Just listening to a podcast, eating the nearly-expired food products and surfin'.

Fer example: Consumating. No, it's not a dating site, it's just a total waste of time. So in many ways, it's similar to a dating site. In my experience anyway.

Countdown to V-Day

Hehehe.

I'm single on Valentine's Day!

No Pressure!

Although I have two application pushes, two committee meetings and laundry to do, so there's pressure just on a different gasket.

Which may blow, by the way.

Okay, I know that's not much to report, but I've been leading a very dull existence lately.

Ooo! I learned a good come-back if you meet a girl on Valentine's and she asks why don't have a girlfriend:

"But I just met you!"

I may have to go out just to try that! Although it may work in the gym....

Samurai Theatre!

Haaaaaaaiiiiiiiii-yaaaaaaaaaa

Boo-ya! The Kurasawa Samurai collection of DVDs hit the door today!

Man I forgot how long Seven Samurai was. 3 hours! Cool!

Okay, okay, have to pace myself......

Grrrrrrrrrr.......

Okay, slap Yojimbo into the player!

Kampai!

Online Order, Snail-mail Return

Gah! Damn and blast.

Probably the most frustrating thing about ordering online; which provides an almost orgasmic sense of instant gratification is that it takes bloody forever for stuff to arrive.
Example: On the 3rd I ordered yet another Java Book for work (okay to learn about Java and help along the Rocket Surgeon project) and for fun classic Samurai movies!

And it still hasn't cleared the sortation plant in Ontario.

Damn and blast!

Now I have ordered stuff before and payed the extra for the "super-duper delivery" which is supposed to hit you mailbox in 3 days.

What it actually means is, you may get it a day ahead of schedule.

And with my luck the book will show up on Friday and the DVDs sometime next month....

Augh!

Okay work is getting nuts.

Everyone is busy and overloaded, we are really short-staffed and now we're snapping at each other over the dumbest things. I freaked out on someone who made me a great pie this past weekend. Lemon meringue pie! Dammit.

The kicker is I work with almost all of my friends in town here and it's just getting so bloody stressful. Gah, I need a job, I need a real job! I need a job that pays. I need a job, I need a good job...

One that satisfies my artistic needs.

Not Lost, But Certainly Confused Weekend

Hey All:

Not much to report this weekend (after the last few that's a good thing). Drinks on Friday, drinks (many, many more drinks) on Saturday watching Extreme Elimination Challenge. No wait, that's not it.

There's two guys in an Octagon. They pummel each other. First one to make the other guy's eye bleed wins. You know. Good fun had by all!

Sunday I went to a Rocketmen! tournament, which turned out to be me and another guy who I'm very sure was the inspiration behind Fear of Girls.

Won't be doing that again any time soon. I think I'll just stick with playing with myself.

Er...

A Wise Lemming Said to Me...

So.

While out and about today (well, okay, while walking to a bookstore at lunch) Stray Lemming mentioned something very interesting regarding my, well, shall we say efforts regarding Lavalife et. al. He said that for someone who previously who was going to 'batch it' for a while, I was putting alot of effort into starting a new relationship.

Huh.

And looking at my posts for the last month, he's right (okay I knew he was right when he said it, reviewing the site just confirms it). So I asked myself, "Self! What's up with that, man?"

Good question, so here's some possible answers.

Sex

Well, duh. But you don't need to be in a relationship to have sex. In theory. So I've heard.

The Relationship Guy

Yeah, I'm a serial monogamist (barring the five year period known as The Drought). So maybe I just don't feel comfortable when I'm not with someone. Something about that rings true, but as stated before, I like my independence as well. So I'll give it a little bit of credence.

Playing the Game

I resigned my commission with, er, I mean, I cancelled my accounts for the MMOs I was playing. And if you think about it, Online Dating is alot like an MMO. It's massive, it's multi-player, it's online!

And of course you raise your skills (obviously I rolled a critical failure this weekend, yikes.), there's PvP (all the other guys on there) ganking (the other guys who move in with their superior, nay l33t abilities) and the end-game "raid" (and with any luck...multiple "parties").

Not to mention playing solo is unfulfilling.

What to do?

Back off for a while. I have several projects... well, not on the "go"... that I want to work on. Plus the whole reconnecting with lapsed friendships etc.

That doesn't mean I won't, if the opportunity arises, decline a party invite for a quick instance run.

Okay, ran that analogy too long.

Stray Lemming = 'Poo'

Condolences to Stray Lemming who, according to him, feels like 'Poo'.
Message Ends

Rocket Surgeon: Scope Creep

Okay, yet another delay on the project.

With all the whoop-de-do at work already reported, looks like we are going to get much more heavily involved with Java (we've been almost exclusively a MS shop for years) with some new tech coming in. So since I'm now on the Integration team, I have to bone up on Java.

I did take some in school, but very little. So after some surfing I picked up Head First Java to start off with and Java After Hours for more advanced stuff.

Yes, yes, I'm focusing on gaming stuff. But if you can program games, you've pretty much got this coding thing sussed.

So ultimately, P:RS will be a Java game, which also means it will be playable on multiple platforms. Which means that people I know will actually be shang-hai'ed into being beta testers. Fortunately I do know some QA people...

Booze
Now those who know me know I like to have a tipple now and then. For those who really know me, "now and then" is actually hardly ever. Mostly because I drive. Alot.

But I think a stiff one for "medicinal purposes" is in order. I do notice I sleep better and wake up (as opposed to "rise from the grave") a tad more refreshed. So a nightcap will be integrated into the regular routine.

I know that's not extremely interesting but January is boring, in general.

Answerologists RULE!

Kudos to all the folks at Answerology who gave me an honest answer to the 'What the hell happened?" question.

I'd say the general consensus is I came on too strong. Which was probably me overcompensating for being to 'stoic', although a few opined that she could have handled that better as well (story of my life). Mea Culpa, once again.

And my ex called tonight (at the point where I had finished my 4th vodka 7). So we're having lunch so we can exchange the last of the stuff (I have some play tickets, she has my apartment keys).

Kinda weird hearing from her. But trust me, getting back together is not gonna happen.

I Take it Back, It Does Suck

So the girl I thought I was doing so well with blocked me on Lavalife.
Don't know what I did wrong. We exchanged many emails, a few phone calls, and everything seemed to be going swimmingly. We had great conversations, shared compliments, found out we had alot in common.
I should note that during our last phone call, her phone went dead. I had asked her out for coffee next week the day before, but she had to go out of town for work for a week.
So I sent the following:

Technology, whaddaya going to do about it?
Anyway, we got cut off before I had the chance (ie built up the confidence) to tell you that, well, I think you're pretty amazing. Now here's me being forward this time :)
Even after a short time, I can tell you are a great person, funny, bright, fun, positive outlook, quirky. Just brings up a huge sigh and goofy grin on me when I think about it.
So anyway, if I seemed a little energy-less, well, I can't wait to meet you, and a whole week... that's like, what, seven days? Argh! Heheh.

So needless to say I'm looking forward to hearing from you :)

She read that and then blocked me.

I give up.

A Poem

Okay I haven't updated in a couple days because, well, it's been a dull couple days.

So here's a poem:

On Lavalife, I set up a profile
To each girl, I sent a wry smile
But with no reply
I figured I'd try
AdultFriendFinder, for a while


Sent this to Regina Lynn who said she'll use it (maybe) in an upcoming Podcast.

Work, Play and Poetry

Alright no specific topic today, but a couple of rants, maybe a rave, and at least one serendipitous moment.

Work

For those in the know, I had previously spewed alot of venom and vitriol about my current place of employment, which I subsequently removed from the blog. This was because I was scaring even myself.

But sometimes things swell to the top and explode. Like volcano. Or a zit. Or like when I forgot to put the top on the blender when making a smoothie last night. There's another analogy here, but I'm single and only have a vague recollection.

Now there has been no less that 3 reorganizations in the past year. And from what I can see each has been progressively motivated by politics. The last one is (I'm speculating, the same way that a person speculates that falling off of a 40-story building does not bode well) that this last one was purely political in nature. My new manager is looking to build up head-count as well as get himself promoted (for the third time in three years). So I have a new boss, who was once my old boss.

This current re-org has forced the usually shuffling of people from one cubicle to another cubicle. Now my previous fattening-pen at least was by a window, was away from the high-traffic areas and allowed at least a modicum of privacy.

Now, not so much. I'm on the corner of an intersection, which has already become a 'hub' for standup meetings.

Some of you are saying 'so get some headphones!'. Which I have. But they don't help because I inevitably get tapped on the shoulder for my input (I've been with the company seven years, which makes me an old-timer). Not great for the concentration.

So the second thing is, I don't trust my boss (who was my boss two bosses ago). He's a smart guy, but frankly his outlook on development is the complete opposite of mine: he wants to deliver something, anything to keep the clients happy. At the opposite extreme is myself, who has no problems delaying a project if it doesn't meet quality standards. There will be a definite wailing and gnashing of teeth over this.... He's short term, I'm long term. Which means I'm left holding the bag on the 'oversights' that inevitably occur when he's in charge.

That, and it looks like I'm stuck working with 25 year old technology again.

There's more about work I want to gripe about, but I gotta save something for later.

Play

Okay, a reader (by which I mean a person I physically threatened until he read my blog) had asked me to describe the phone conversation and the girl I was talking to. I would but that's personal for her. I don't want to reveal anything about people (unless it's nasty and I don't like them) without their knowledge, I'll only publish my own thoughts on the situations I find myself in.

That being said I called her the next day. Now I actually thought that this was good thing, as I do hear (okay I read on Answerology) that women hate it when guys wait too long. So I thought I was blazing new trails and opening up the lines of communications between the sexes.

Instead, I think I came off as clingy. Well, ball is in her court now. What do you think the odds are she'll just pick it up and move to the next pitch (you know, the one that has the much more handsome, tanned, tennis instructor).

Hmmmm, maybe there's a self-confidence problem in there somewhere. I'd find out more, but worried I could be right.


Project: Rocket Surgeon!

... is delayed. Not because I'm lazy (well, not entirely anyway), but because MS has started another online course on C# and game design, but using 3D graphics!

It actually is a much, much better course than the first. So I looked at what they did, and I did, and pretty much scrapped what I did.

So the new game is to take Rocketmen! and turn it into a real-time 3D space battle! Which means I have to change the rules as presented by the original game, but also means I can simplify them greatly. The sessions continue for the next two weeks, so I'll take those before I delve into my own code. Besides, they provide a pretty okay 3D engine. And I can make my own 3D models!

Poetry

ummm, actually, I'll save this one for later. Let's just say it involves a limerick, a blogger who knows much, much more about technology and sex than I, and, well, I still have to find out.

Check for gills! Shawks!